Marbled Chocolate Cake

I haven’t posted a recipe on my blog for a while, not only because I didn’t really have the time but also because I couldn’t chose which one I wanted to  do… I finally chose for this easy yet enhanced recipe : a marbled chocolate cake with a yummy milk chocolate glazing and hazelnuts pieces. I also reduced the quantity of sugar quite drastically.

You can decline this marbled chocolate cake in different versions : with dark chocolate, a mix of dark and milk chocolate, only milk chocolate or like I did this time with dark chocolate and praliné paste. 

Let’s stop drooling and start the recipe : 

Ingredients: 

For the cake 

• 125g of soft butter
• 3 eggs
• 60 ml + 25ml of liquid cream (the one you use to make whipped cream)
• 60 ml of almond milk
• 250g of flour
• 80g of sugar
• 10g of baking powder
• vanilla extract
• 100g of dark chocolate (52%)

For the glazing

• 225g of milk chocolate
• 65g of neutral oil (I used sunflower oil)
• 90g of chopped hazelnuts (almonds are fine too)

With a wooden spatula, mix the soft butter and the sugar until well combined.  

Separate the yolks from the egg whites.  Add the yolks and the milk to the butter/sugar mix.  

Then add the flour and the baking powder. You should get a thick preparation but that’s normal. Feel free to use a silicon spatula if it is easier to mix the preparation. 

In the meantime, whisk the egg whites with your kitchen robot. When they are foamy and firm, add them to the preparation in 2 or 3 times.

Divide the batter in 2 bowls. 

In a third bowl placed on a pan filled with swimming water, melt the chocolate with the 60 ml of cream. Once everything is melted and combined, add it to one batter. Mix well. 

In the other batter, add the remaining 25 ml of cream and few drops of vanilla extract. The goal is to obtain about the same texture/thickness as the other batter. 

Grease and flour a cake mould. Preheat the oven at 180˚C. 

Pour a first layer of batter (the one you want) and then add a layer of the other batter. Repeat once or twice until you have used both batters.  To get a prefect marble effect, I used a wooden skewer and slightly mixed the batters in the mould (just do a quick zig zag from one side to the other and then one quick line in the middle to help the cake rise evenly but not more, otherwise you will mix the batters too much). 

Bake in the oven for about 45-50 min. Check if the cake is well cooked by putting a knife or a wooden skewer in the middle. Let it cool down a few minutes before removing it from the cake mould.  Then let it completely cool down before making the glazing. 

For the glazing, melt the milk chocolate au bain-marie with the oil. Once everything is melted, remove the bowl from the pan and add the chopped hazelnuts. 

Let the temperature drop to 34-35˚C and then pour everything on top of the cake making sure all the sides are covered. If not, you can always take what fell off with a spatula to cover the missing spots. This kind of glazing is not setting very quickly so you have time to touch it if needed. 

Let it set for 10-15 min at room temperature. Then transfer the marbled chocolate cake to a plate or wooden board using a long flat spatula and put it in the fridge for at least an hour until all the glazing is set (overnight is perfect). 

Bon appétit !